A Sweden-based alcohol entrepreneur has successfully obtained the trademark "The Pirate Bay". Colin Scragg, who made complaints to police over share dealings at his former company earlier this year, had faced opposition at the Patents and Trademarks Office, but now the decision has swung in his favor.

Although the site’s activities have been continuously covered in the press, 2009 proved to be a particularly massive year for Pirate Bay-focused column inches.

April’s 2009 “guilty” verdict for the site’s founders was quickly followed in June by an announcement from internet café and gaming center company Global Gaming Factory X that it was in the process of acquiring The Pirate Bay for $7.8m.

But amid all the commotion and confusion, Swedish-based Englishman and alcoholic beverage entrepreneur Colin Scragg saw a golden opportunity – to own the very identity of “The Pirate Bay”.

“No one had protected the trademark,” Scragg told the press. All the publicity and the perfect match between the name “The Pirate Bay” and introducing a new rum to Sweden was too great a chance to miss, he added.

As can been seen above, Scragg was pictured in the Swedish media holding bottles of rum adorned with the familiar Pirate Bay logo but an official objection to his acquisition put the process on hold. The challenge came not from the famous site, but from the company behind the Captain Morgan brand in Scotland. Their “Parrot Bay’ product is confusingly close to “Pirate Bay” they argued.

Two years later that battle is all over with Scragg winning the trademark and the right to put ‘The Pirate Bay’ not only on rum and other spirits, but also on beer.

“We think it’s kind of sad that we will now have to pirate our own Pirate Bay beer, but it just shows that the world of immaterial rights is fucked up,” a TPB insider told TorrentFreak.

“At least we have some TPB beer glasses that you can buy in our shop though – to drink the pirated beer in!”

Interestingly, while at the time of the trademark acquisition Scragg was chief of drinks company LO Smith, he didn’t register it in their name. He told the press that he needed to act quickly so he registered it personally.

Now, following a pretty big dispute over finances at the company and the subsequent involvement of the police at his behest, Scragg appears to have parted ways with LO Smith, meaning that the trademark “The Pirate Bay” is presumably now in private hands.